Mike Pease to present at Harvard Medical Conference

Mike Pease, a health promotion specialist in the Center for Health Promotion, was invited to present at The Herbert Benson, MD Course in Mind Body Medicine hosted by the Harvard Medical School on Thursday, Nov. 4. Pease was asked to present about implementation of the Positivity and Relaxation Training (PART) course at UMass Amherst.

Image

Dr. Gregory Frichionne, the director of the Benson Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine invited Pease to participate. Dr. Benson has called Pease a “pioneer” for bringing the Benson-Henry work to the UMass Amherst campus and recently presented him with a signed copy of his book, “The Breakout Principle.”

Pease began teaching resilience courses at UMass Amherst in 2018. As part of an instructional team, he was co-teaching the Resilient Warrior Course to student veterans. The success of that course lead the introduction of Positivity and Relaxation Training (PART).

The nine-week Positivity and Relaxation Training (PART) program helps participants develop a self-care routine to help manage stress, improve their outlook and enhance their quality of life.

Developed at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, the PART program teaches participants a variety of mind body practices and self-care interventions:

• How to recognize their personal responses to stress
• Meditative techniques that elicit the relaxation response
• How to change thought patterns and emotional outlook to adaptive and positive perspectives
• Techniques to improve sleep, eating and physical activity
• Ways to harness creativity, humor and appreciations to cultivate positivity and personal wellbeing